Olympics: Rogge backs Beijing over human rights

By Simon Hart

12:01AM GMT 04 Dec 2005

The head of the Olympic Movement has appealed to critics of China's human rights record to keep a sense of perspective in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and not forget how far the country has travelled in the last half-century.

China's training methods came under fire last month when Sir Matthew Pinsent visited a sports school in Beijing and was shocked to find evidence of child gymnasts being beaten by their coaches.

In a report for the BBC, the former rower accused the school authorities of being guilty of child abuse.

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said he condemned any physical abuse and has ordered an inquiry into Pinsent's allegation to investigate whether it is an isolated incident or part of a wider system, but he added it was unfair to judge the country too harshly by modern western standards.

In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph, he said: "While it is not for us to condone what might not be acceptable, you also have to look at the cultural factor. I don't need to remind you of the fact that physical punishment was still in use in English public schools until, I believe, the 1970s."

Rogge added: "It's a different society and it is not like ours, but you have to remember that in 1949 China was divided between warlords, it had a string of famines and was in total poverty. There was no education, no housing projects and no healthcare.

"In just over 50 years they have been able to accommodate

1.3 billion people, to feed them, educate them and to give them jobs. The mortality rate of the population has dropped dramatically. This is the achievement of this society.

"While I am the first one to say that human rights have to be respected, and we will push for human rights, one has to judge China in the true perspective of realising that 50 years ago they were nowhere and seeing what they have achieved now and what their evolution will be in the next 10 to 15 years.

"I am truly attached to democracy. In fact, some people in the IOC say I am probably a little bit too democratic and not enough of a tyrant, but that's my style. But we have experimented with democracy for more than 200 years, with all its setbacks and advances. They have to reinvent that and adapt it to their own system in a short time."

The great attraction to the IOC of staging the Games in Beijing is the chance to further the country's rapid progress by exposing one-fifth of the world's population to the values of the Olympics - an opportunity Rogge describes as a "fantastic thing".

"What we are offering them, they will absorb in their own way," he said.

"We cannot as wealthy westerners be so arrogant to say that it has to be according to our laws, laws that have developed over 200 years. They started from scratch in 1949 and have evolved a lot. Does that mean that we believe that everything is perfect? No, but let's look at the progress they have made."

The danger for the IOC, however, is that its much-prized Olympic brand may become tarnished by association with the negative stories that are likely to surface as China opens its doors to a prying western media in the next three years. But Rogge insists that would be grossly unfair.

"The IOC has been very clear in saying to the Chinese authorities that the IOC stands for human rights and that we would hope that they would make the maximum progress," he said. "But the IOC can't be made accountable for the human rights situation in China. Why would a sports organisation like ours be more effective than all the major governments in the world over the last decade?

"I see that Mr Bush is saying that he is hoping for better rights. Will he achieve it? Question mark.

"The same goes for Mr Schroeder and Mr Blair. They all go to Beijing with the same message.

"What would be unfair is if in 2008 people are pointing the finger at the IOC and saying this is happening and this is your fault. We will do our duty. We are insisting on free media reporting and we talk to the authorities about human rights, but don't ask the impossible from the IOC."